the old internet as psyche

[version]

This is one of Adam Curtis's recurring themes, isn't it? Or two closely related themes: the overlap between the psychedelic counterculture and Silicon Valley, and the idea(l) of the early Internet as an anarchistic utopia free from the influence of both governments and big business (*hollow laugh*).

The latter's partly Pynchon's focus in Bleeding Edge, the extension of captial's drawing of property lines into cyberspace. The next step appears to be outer-space, what with Musk setting his sights on Mars and Bezos shifting his focus to his space company.

 

[woops]

if @luka was here maybe he'd mention the corporate incursion on the psychedelic realm again, DMT titration or whatever it is, plus corporate mindfulness and all of that. a different kind of inner space. space aliens eating human souls

 

[version]

Hard to say. It might be the beginning of the end of the revolutionary power being used as we'd like it to be, e.g. acid now being harnessed for microdosing in the corporate environment.

Whether you see the stuff as figuratively plugging you into another time and space or literally, it's clearly the start of that time and space being colonised by market forces the way the internet has been. The map is being drawn, property lines will be staked out.

 

[version]

if @luka was here maybe he'd mention the corporate incursion on the psychedelic realm again, DMT titration or whatever it is, plus corporate mindfulness and all of that. a different kind of inner space. space aliens eating human souls

Yeah, some of inner space has already befallen this fate, but there's more for them to take.

 

[HMGovt’s Glorious Return!]

143 iq magical tipster

Yes, yes, y'all

 

[HMGovt’s Glorious Return!]

Anyway, to get back on topic, all I'm saying is bitcoin is CLEARLY a continuation and validation of the cypherpunk ideal. If you can't see through the smoke and mirrors and understand that, you're lacking.

 

[IdleRich]

The latter's partly Pynchon's focus in Bleeding Edge, the extension of captial's drawing of property lines into cyberspace. The next step appears to be outer-space, what with Musk setting his sights on Mars and Bezos shifting his focus to his space company.

Interestingly I'm reading The Star Fraction (from 95) which seems to be about the possibilities of utopian ideals in the net and/or space. Among other things.

 

[Woebot]

View attachment 6828

Yes, yes, y'all

this does seem to be missing an obvious point

the time to invest in something is - as a rule - when a market has crashed not when it's in ascendance

it reminds me a bit of those adverts on london buses at the moment which proclaim "you know it's time to invest in bitcoin when you see it advertised on a bus" - when of course completely the opposite is true

i hope you got in a very long time ago but for the rest of anyone who was interested (not me) the ship sailed a long time ago

bitcoin definitely has its roots in the old internet - and those who were sufficently "old internet" in their psychology stand to make a handsome profit - which is great. but now? it's a little like the difference between being boiled and dare

 

[Woebot]

or (better) this:



and this:

 

[HMGovt’s Glorious Return!]

Historically, it's never been too late. It's gone up nearly 10x since this day last year.

 

[IdleRich]

the time to invest in something is - as a rule - when a market has crashed not when it's in ascendance

That's far from being the full story. Yeah those kind of fairytale dreams where you make billions from a few quid often rely on this sort of scenario, but realistically that's not what most investment is. Simple fact of the matter is that if something is gonna increase in value it's a good investment (obviously the faster and higher it goes up the better), the less simple part is the extreme difficulty of predicting which will do that... remember that past performance is not necessarily any guide to future performance.

it reminds me a bit of those adverts on london buses at the moment which proclaim "you know it's time to invest in bitcoin when you see it advertised on a bus" - when of course completely the opposite is true

Is that a real advert? If so then I totally agree with you here. It sounds as though they sat down to devise the worst possible slogan. Especially when you consider that with the 350mn a week thing 'written on the side of a bus' has basically become a way of saying 'a huge lie"

 

[william_kent]

How much is a vision of digital utopia just a byproduct of military research?

Computing - WII - UK Military needs to crack Nazi ENIGMA, further research at UK Universities , funded by UK Military
LSD - Sandoz, research then funded by the CIA via MKULTRA, giving birth to hippies...Leary a CIA stooge, Kesey a CIA experimental subject, Dr Louis Jolyon "Jolly" West's experiments with Charlie Manson get a bit out of control
The Internet - used to be the ARPANET - funded by the US military / DARPA - ensure network does not fail when red nukes rain down
Bitcoin - "Satoshi Nakamoto" - yeah, right.. its shoddy merkle tree ( aka blockchain ) implementation doesn't provide the same anonymity to its consumers as it does to its supposed creator - let's just check who is purchasing what...
The Darknet- enabled by TOR which is funded by the US Naval Research Laboratory - let's set up a blackmarket and track who is buying contraband by examining the blockchains...
Mobile phones - tracking device in everyone's pocket by their own choice, no need to implant microchip

Who is spinning the web?

 

[Woebot]

Is that a real advert? If so then I totally agree with you here. It sounds as though they sat down to devise the worst possible slogan. Especially when you consider that with the 350mn a week thing 'written on the side of a bus' has basically become a way of saying 'a huge lie"

here's the same one in australia

 

[Woebot]

That's far from being the full story.

agreed. but i'm only referring to the principle that, like warren buffet, you buy something that is perceived as being undervalued.

however there was a moment after the last crash when i considered buying ethereum - and that would have been a good moment - but in the end decided against it.

bitcoin seems to me like gold. gold always goes up in value in times of insecurity. so it went up after the last financial crash in 2008. as soon as the global economy improved it went down again.

right now with covid we are at a massive high watermark in terms of fear and panic - so people like HMGovt can make claims like "buy Bitcoin or see all your assets melt away" - inferring in six months that a weeks wages will buy a box of matches and a potato.

the moment that all the engines are back on and running i expect bitcoin will return to, probably its peak previous value or a bit above that.

it will definitely, like gold, return to being a basically quite boring investment.

 

[Woebot]

i suppose it'll always be more volatile than gold though...

 

[Woebot]

anyway i don't want to talk about f*%^&$%£ bitcoin a moment longer

 

[polystyle]

there must be stuff left. flickers of the old dream.

Hmmm, there are , no doubt.
Jaron Lanier has continued in his way , his manner.
John Perry Barlow gone.

Tim Berner's Lee ? had what seemed a few years back to be a promising new tech.

 

[polystyle]

anyway i don't want to talk about f*%^&$%£ bitcoin a moment longer

hehe - happy to hear you did not buy Ether !

 

[Woebot]

Hmmm, there are , no doubt.
Jaron Lanier has continued in his way , his manner.
John Perry Barlow gone.

Tim Berner's Lee ? had what seemed a few years back to be a promising new tech.

f'sure. but really wondering about the new blood. i expect the impulse is still alive on the darknet.

PLACES LIKE THIS dare i say.

 

[polystyle]

f'sure. but really wondering about the new blood. i expect the impulse is still alive on the darknet.

PLACES LIKE THIS dare i say.

Yeah, the 'new blood' ! come on out

The dark net busy cashing in, scamming 24/ 7
The psyche net ? ...
some survivors from Mondo 2000 might be doing better then some of the prime MIT ' friends of J Epstein ' crew see J Ito and a cast of .... many.
DMT tribes i see come and go ,
Peter Russell's Global Brain on a way to 'awakening' ?

In over 3 years trying to land the backing for Platform X, there was wave after wave of investment by Silicon Valley, plenty of books, some good, some ' i have to write something so i will just hype shit' type books.
Always a next 'new'.
Next moment, another white- male- duo got backed to the tune of 10's of millions.
And in almost all cases, never another mention in tech media, let alone a 'progress report'.
That's just the culture out there near Stanford.

Between East and left coasts, i did my part and pressed flesh at Ethereum's meetings in early 2015 Brooklyn, hung around long enough to scope it out and meet them, have meetings.
I came to the feeling that sometimes engineers are not the best for nailing ' what humans need' ( let alone want ) this very moment.
Looking at you Ethereum and Vitalik.
And a farther 100,000 yard stare @ Peter Thiel and his er brainies w hand in his pocket.

And liked Nick Srnicek on platform capitalism ,
the universe of platforms posited in light of the Chinese Ali Baba mode of
' One platform to rule all ' ( obv. it's all about ' ruling' for some guys )

Delete Your Account: On the Theory of Platform Capitalism | Los Angeles Review of Books

The platform confuses capital-flow and social form, rearranging the relationship of profit to community and intelligence to organization.

lareviewofbooks.org

that whole ' delete your account' series @ LA Review of books was pretty good in a few directions and marked the last web promise frenzy i know about.

Promise in that there was still a ways to go until we can make the Platform X.
Which may or may not involve blockchain.
Boy , i was on that case for some time with the C3 music rights people, later the
OMI Open Music Initiative.
"Hey. look at what X ( fill in the one artist's name ) is doing with blockchain" ...

So far it came down to one programmer we have been getting advice from is stuck in SF area and cannot get back to London to see his wife and rapidly growing daughter. an SF area native ,but he did commit, marry and made family in London.
Others ran off to take chance on Crypto, another took another tech job.
Maybe one is now into NFT's : )